Silent Hill: Reunion
by KrakaIXI
Summary: Miranda "Myr" Holstead has just been released from a psychiatric hospital and begins her journey home to resume care of her housebound mother. What she finds will be family, but not how she expected to.


**Silent Hill: Reunion**

**April 4th**

_8 AM_

_Waking up was easier today. My dreams weren't as bad last night. The same start, back in that old, heavy house with the nicotine stained walls and the still present smell of old alcohol, however vague it may be. A baby cries, but from everywhere at once. Mother calls. A bit of red wine, her meds, and…_

_Foam. So much foam. And why was it red? That was about as far as I got this time. Sometimes it goes further. Sometimes to horrible ends. Things that feel so close to me, yet so terrible that I know I could never do them. Accepting the scarier parts of us was an important part of the process of coming to terms and moving on, or at least that's what the shrink says._

_I've taken my morning medication already, and today things are looking _and _feeling good. Doc says I'm making great progress, and that I'm almost ready for what will hopefully be the final nail in the proverbial coffin. He said it could even be today! After morning exercise, mealtime and meeting with Dan, I've got a chess game with Gina and then the rest of the day free unless he thinks I'm ready. I think I might write if he doesn't._

_10 AM_

_Exercise is so nice, don't you think? I know I do. It lets you really focus in, clear your mind, and work on building a better you. Helps with the headaches, and sometimes even the nightmares. That's what this is really all about when you got down to it, right? We're each broken in our own special ways, and though doctors and medicine help, it's everyone's duty to do their absolute best to be better. I'll get better. I have to._

_I chatted with Gina a bit before coming back to write this. She still insists that she knows me from her life as a stripper. It's silly, I know, but I can actually almost picture it sometimes as much as it makes me giggle. Sometimes I even think I could have been good at it. Unless I get out of here, though, we might never know._

_There's still so much on my mind, scratching at the back of my brain. As kinda scary as it is, I'm really excited to see if I'm ready for this new treatment. They've said it's had a lot of success so far, but that it's still experimental and dangerous. I could lose my mind or my life in a snap. I'm losing the former anyways and wasting the latter in here, though. If it's a chance to make it out, I _need _to take it. For me and for mother._

_12 PM_

_Lunchtime is the best time of the day, isn't it? It's the mid point break, where you can unpack and process the morning and prepare to start the afternoon fresh. Not that there's often a lot to unpack before noon, but still. It's mostly quiet, with everyone still feeling refreshed from sleep but a bit exhausted from the stretches and touch of workout they have us do. It certainly gets you plenty ready for noon, at least!_

_There have been at least a few times, however. Sometimes waiting until one to talk to Dan about the dreams or hallucinations or whatever since the last time is just too much. There's also a problem or two from time to time with a patient, and that can get… fuzzy? It's really hard to explain, even though I feel like I have a million times. I don't think any of them have involved me, and I sometimes have to pray that that's the way it is._

_Anyways, about this lunch. I _love _the food here. I'm not absolutely certain it's not the drugs, but I don't think I've had food quite this good anywhere else. Today for lunch is a monster of a sandwich with freshly baked chips and some of the sun tea I helped make! It's wonderful. Did I mention I love the food here?_

_Okay, me. Meeting time. Put the book down and get to getting better!_

_2 PM_

_So much can change in just an hour. It's wonderful, and miserable._

_Dan said I'm so close. _So _close. But not today. Of course, because it's never today, is it? It's always tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Sometimes I feel like I'd be lucky to get out of here at all. Maybe I'll be stuck here, like Ann. Withering away, completely alone. I'm so tired of being alone._

_It's a different kind of loneliness, the one that you get when you're around a lot of people. Normal loneliness is no picnic, and I know from experience, but it's more of a dull throb. You feel it almost always, but you get used to it. With no one else around, it's not like you could fix it even if you tried. You just have to wait it out til someone comes along, your situation magically changes or you die. Easy enough._

_With so many people around you every day, even broken as they are, it's worse. There's a million tiny chances, just split seconds but everywhere, to find that connection. Most of the people around you probably want that too. But you can't. You know what you're like since you've been living with it for all of your time, and you wouldn't wish that on most people. You also know exactly how much they can hurt you. It's like a cheesecake on a dock and you're terrified of water, why there's a goddamn cheesecake there in the first place and all the ways it might be part of a plan to kill you for good this time._

_I shouldn't be upset. At least, that's what Dan said. Sometimes I wonder how he's a therapist here at all. Sure, tell the apparent psycho not to be upset. That always works well. That's why there are no violent murderers or women with crippling nightmares, right? I know, I shouldn't be so cynical, either. It's a bad habit, blah blah. Bite me. You don't know me. I barely know me. Not now, anyways. I just wanna go home…_

_4 PM_

_Hey there. Sorry for blowing up earlier. I was upset, and I can't let myself get like that. Not if I want out of here, anyways. I don't think I let anyone see how hurt I was, so I think I can still pull this off. Fingers crossed, right? Right._

_Anyways, it was Gina that mellowed me out. We talked a bit about getting out, the cute new girl, Ann's newest rampage and those past lives. She really does know just how to make me feel better. I think I got pretty lucky, having her in here. If- no, _when _I get out of here, I'll have to remember to keep in touch with her. I really wish I knew how to help her get out too, but she won't even tell me why she's here. Says she doesn't wanna burden me with too much poison. Still feel like she's hiding something, but I'm sure we could still be friends no matter what._

_I think I'll spend the next couple hours writing. Imagining always builds up my appetite, and I've still got a ways on the fairy tale I'm working on. I think I'll finally have the knight make it through the crypts. It's about time something went right for "him"._

_6 PM_

_Writing went well. At first._

_Sir Gale, my knight and hero of the story, was battling through the crypts. As a side note, I'm having trouble not directly referring to gender. I want the big reveal to be really surprising! I guess I can tell me though, Sir Gale isn't a sir at all. She pretends so that she can fight for the kingdom she loves._

_Anyways, she makes it through the tight, skeleton packed caverns to the Necromancer's lair. I write up to her seeing the Necromancer, and time in real life just… stops. I could see and hear, but I couldn't move. Then, the words I had just written started to… shift, I guess? They swirled around on the page for what seemed like an hour, then suddenly shot out and stuck to the walls, starting a slow burn of black ink that attempted to consume them. I felt myself turn, chair and all, to face the center of my room. It was now jet black, with a hint of luminescence and a faint shimmer. From the middle, a massive figure formed out of the sludge now covering everything but me. It towered over me, taller than I remember my room being, with a now clearly formed but black face that felt so familiar, somehow. So terrifying._

_For a moment, it seemed like it tried to speak. It was as if the words were there, but there was no air to push them out. Only more sludge, and it poured out of the thing's maw instead. Deciding it wasn't worth trying anymore, it plunged a fist almost the size of me into the floor. The black parted, and I could have sworn for a second I saw fire in the pit that formed. He pulled out what looked like… a boy? Yes, a boy, but withered and burnt, his neck snapped and head dangling to the left. Throwing it in front of me, the creature smiled and sat down on my bed. The boy in front of me looked up at me, horror in its eyes, and spoke._

_"Why? Why didn't you stop him? Why didn't you save me?" Now, that familiar sickening red foam comes pouring out of both their mouths. Filling the room. I try to escape it, to go anywhere but inside that fucking foam, but the boy grabs my ankles. I hear him in my head, "This is your fate. Come to us. We wait there."_

_And then I'm back at my desk, perfectly pristine white walls glimmering in the early afternoon sun. I can still feel those hands. As weird as it is, and despite how fast my heart is still beating, I feel somehow better. Like I just needed to get that out, whatever it was. Let's hope it's out for good._

_I should go eat. It's already almost time for showers and bed, and I've got to be in top shape if I hope to get that approval tomorrow. Crossed fingers and all that._

_8 PM_

_I don't know how we feel right now, me. Dinner was okay, but what just happened… what just happened shook me. I had just finished my plate and was about to head here when Dr. Hensley and two orderlies came into the cafeteria, blocking the door. He tried to hide it, but I could see a bit of fresh red stain on the cuff of one of the orderlies' jackets. The more lucid of us all took pretty quick note, and even some of those less fortunate stopped their meals or rantings to look on._

_"I'm afraid there's been an incident." Dr. Hensley spoke, the usual firmness in her voice seeming to waver slightly. "We need everyone to wait here for a few moments while things are taken care of. Don't worry, you'll all be in bed on time."_

_An incident. That's all she said. Most of us knew the code, though. Someone was hurt or dead. I took a quick look around the room, praying to nothing that I'd see Gina. I did, rather quickly, chatting with someone I didn't recognize. I didn't figure she'd do something like that, but you never know in here. We're all pretty broken, and even I've thought about it once or twice. Dan says I even tried one night, but I don't remember it. _

_The face I didn't see was Ann's, and I instantly knew. She was gone this time. I could _feel _it. What I didn't know was how. None of us did, and we probably never would. The only way they'd ever address something like this was if it happened right in front of us. They'll tell us tomorrow that she was fit to be released, or fell ill. Maybe they mean well and want to protect us since we're already delicate, but I can't help but feel that's not quite it._

_We did make it back on time. I pass Ann's room on the way to mine, but the curtain in the tiny door window made a glance impossible. I could swear I saw the faintest trace of a red streak trailing away from the room. It hurt, walking on. Not in the way that she was close and I was sad. We almost never talked, and honestly I had always been a bit afraid of her. I mean it _hurt _being near that room. It's like there was an unnatural pressure issuing forth from the tiny white prison, dragging me into the floor if I were only more collapsible. I made it back here, though. As tired as I am after everything today, I'm scared to sleep._

_I can already feel that dream forming again._


End file.
